News

Gala Gathering Honors Australian Graphisoft Prize Winners

Hungarian President, the Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney and the NSW Government Architect Chris Johnson congratulate Australian winners and unveil 1999 competition

Sydney - February 17, 1999

In the presence of the President of Hungary,
Arpád Göncz, members of his delegation and CEO Gabor Bojar, Graphisoft (Frankfurt Neuer Markt: GPH) and Australian ARCHICAD distributor Archigraph presented awards to the Australian winners of the 1998 Graphisoft Prize International Design Competition. The gala event with close to 200 guests took place at the Source Four Ninety in Sydney where awards were presented to:

The team of Andrew Maynard and Stephen Mees, University of Tasmania for the first prize,

Daniel Koh, University of Tasmania for the third prize,

Jad Silvester, University of Tasmania for an Honorable Mention.

President Arpád Göncz, Graphisoft's President and CEO Gábor Bojár, and NSW Government Architect Chris Johnson presented the awards.

"Graphisoft is one of the jewels of Hungary's business community," commented President Göncz. "The annual design competition that they sponsor extends that community to architects and students around the world."

"We are both thrilled and proud that our Australian students have achieved so much in the Graphisoft Prize. This is a tribute to their talent, imagination and their architectural education", commented the managing director of Archigraph , Maurizio Nannetti.

After the Award Ceremony the winners presented their entries to the invited guests with great success.

Since 1993, the GRAPHISOFT PRIZE has rewarded architectural students for pushing the frontiers of architectural expression using CAD software. The annual competition has challenged students to create "virtual architecture" drawing from cultural themes as diverse as Bartok's Opera Bluebeard's Castle to Italo Calvino¹s Invisible Cities to the Eagles' "Hotel California." In addition to its innovative design program, the competition makes extensive use of the Internet and requires entrants to use "virtual reality" technology and 3D computer models to present their entries. Catalogs of previous Graphisoft Prizes are available on CD from Graphisoft or on the Graphisoft Prize website at www.gsprize.com.

For last year's competition, the winning student team of Andrew Maynard and Stephen Mees from University of Tasmania let their collective imagination run wild with an architectural interpretation of Bulgakov's tale "The Master and Margarita" which, in the words of Mees, "represents the domain of the devil, paved with the litany of wealthy and influential citizens and intelligentsia, right up to the door of the madhouse."

Graphisoft also unveiled the themes for the 1999 Graphisoft Prize, which opens officially on March 1, 1999. The themes again draw from literature, music, poetry, painting and theatre, ranging from Thomas Mann's Joseph and his Brothers, to William Gibson's Sci-Fi novel Neuromancer, to Midnight Oil's "Blue Sky mine." The Graphisoft prize is open to anyone, but entrants must register at www.gsprize.com.

Archigraph is the Australian distributor for ARCHICAD, and a leading Australian CAD vendor specializing in Architecture, Building Design and Management and Space Planning. Founded in 1991, in Sydney, Archigraph has a presence in every state of Australia and it is recognized as an IT leader in its specialized field.

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